Political crisis in France: the impossible compromise

More than six months after the crisis over the dissolution of the French government, France is experiencing a new period of political turbulence. Prime Minister Michel Barnier, whose role was to find compromises with a National Assembly that was more divided than ever, failed to get a budget for 2025 approved. The far right, led by the Rassemblement National (RN) and its 124 MPs, imposed its conditions by regularly threatening the government with censure. This inevitable outcome was reached on Wednesday: the Barnier government, which resorted to Article 49.3 hoping for a last minute burst of ‘responsibility’ from all the MPs, was immediately brought down by a motion of censure voted by both the left and the RN.

Emmanuel Macron spoke on Thursday 5 December: although he is widely accused of being primarily responsible for this unprecedented institutional crisis, he defended himself by declaring: ‘The far right and the far left have united in an anti-republican front’. He refused to resign and called for the formation of a ‘government of general interest’ in the next few days.

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